PROCLAMATION FOR SPECIAL SESSION OF CONGRESS

May 5, 1877

Washington, D.C.

Whereas the final adjournment of the Forty-fourth Congress without making the usual appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, presents an extraordinary occasion requiring the President to exercise the power vested in him by the Constitution to convene the House of Congress in anticipation of the day fixed by law for their next meeting:

Now, therefore, I, RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, President of the United States, do, by virtue of the power to this end in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress to assemble at their respective chambers at 12 o’clock noon on Monday, the fifteenth day of October next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, their duty and the welfare of the people may seem to demand.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and first.